Timestream
Timestream Montages appear whenever Max uses her Focus ability on a photo to go back in time and alters a past event which causes the timeline to be "overwritten". These timestream sequences consist of moments that happened in the earlier timeline burning and merging into moments of the new timeline. Alternative Timeline Max travels back in time to the day William, Chloe's father, dies in a car crash. She prevents him from driving his car, saving William's life and creating an alternative timeline very different from the original. A timestream montage shows the events of the original timeline being altered. After either accepting or refusing Chloe's wish, Max returns to the day William died and lets events happen as they did in the original timeline. Another timestream montage occurs, depicting the previously shown events reverting back to the original ones. Dark Room Timeline In an effort to escape from the Dark Room, Max focuses on a monochrome photo taken by Jefferson. She manages to kick a trolley and damages Jefferson's photos. The timestream montage shows an angry Jefferson looking at a folder. San Francisco Timeline After Max is captured by Jefferson in episode five, she uses her diary to travel back to Jefferson's classroom. She texts David about Jefferson and the Dark Room and then submits her photo to the Everyday Heroes contest. A timestream montage is shown; some events remain the same, but others change dramatically, such as Max winning the contest and setting off for San Francisco. After arriving at the gallery, Max discovers that the storm is still in existence and approaching Arcadia Bay. Determined to save Chloe, Max focuses on her gallery entry, returns to the day it was taken and tears it apart, preventing herself from winning the contest. A timestream montage shows Max putting the torn photo inside her diary, Jefferson burning Max's diary, Max restrained in the Dark Room and Jefferson entering the Dark Room. Storm Timeline Max travels back in time using the photo Warren took of them together. Max convinces Chloe not to search for Nathan and instead to tell David about Jefferson and the Dark Room. A timestream montage shows Max and Chloe warning David, Jefferson being arrested by David and several other policemen, and Max and Chloe facing the storm together. Sacrifice Chloe Timeline At the end of the game, Max is faced with her biggest decision so far - save Chloe and let the tornado destroy Arcadia Bay, or sacrifice Chloe in order to save everyone. If the player chooses the latter, Max focuses on the photo of the blue butterfly and travels to the beginning of the game; this time, she doesn't intervene and allows Nathan to shoot Chloe in the stomach. A timestream montage shows David handcuffing Nathan, Nathan interrogated by the police, Jefferson being arrested by the police, Max talking to Joyce and David, Max hugging her teddy bear, Joyce giving Max a box with Chloe's belongings, Max looking at polaroids and Max standing on the lighthouse cliff. Time-jump mechanism and "auto-pilot" Max When Max rewind time without using a picture, she basically time-travels physically. Her body stays at the same place when she rewinds time. She erases the physical position of her old self and replaces it by a new one. To exterior people, it would seem Max teleported herself. The mechanism involved with the time jumps through pictures is radically different: it involves Max's conscience moving back and forth in time while her body doesn't. There is one important notion to understand: while Max can time-jump in the past through a picture, she can't project her conscience into a future which hasn't yet been created or defined. That's why the auto-pilot Max (the concept is explained in the next section) will have the responsibility to create a future for the original Max to come back to once she made the changes she wanted to make in the past. First example of an auto-pilot Max in the game: when Max focuses on the picture taken by William, her conscience is sent 5 years back in time and inserts itself into the 13 year-old Max. You could say Max's 18 year-old conscience took over her 13 year-old body. At this moment Max is in an "unresolved point in time" which is limited by photographic boundaries (the Polaroid effects): the changes made here will make the original timeline diverge. After she hid the keys and saved William, Max's 18 yo conscience left her 13 yo body. This conscience will be put "on hold" long enough for the newly created timeline to catch up. It means the original 13 yo Max, not possessed by 18 yo Max anymore, is gonna live her own life during five years, until the moment when Max is 18, a member of the Vortex Club and chilling on the grass with her new Vortex Club friends. These five years have been lived by what playerd refer to as an "auto-pilot Max". This term is somehow misleading since it only means this was another version of Max who lived these 5 years and we didn't get to witness any of it (for the player it happened almost instantly, in the best case we get to see a few picturrs changing). This auto-pilot Max seemingly acted ouf of her own volition since she turned out to be a totally different person from the Max we knew. This whole auto-pilot process brings out some confusing points: After the original 13 yo Max was posseded by her 18 self, how is she gonna remember these few minutes when she hid the car keys (the "unresolved point in time)? Three possibilities: 1. Max won't remember these few minutes and will go on living normally. It's not likely: a 13 girl would probably freak out if suffering from amnesia. 2. Max knows she was possessed and knows about her future time travel powers. Not really possible, it would affect the timeline way too much. 3. Her mind will fill in the gaps with fake memories: 13 yo Max will think she acted from her own will when she hid the keys, maybe thinking it was some kind of prank she doesn't clearly remember. This is the most likely scenario. Note: when a possessed Max warned Chloe on the parking lot, she said to Chloe that the auto-pilot Max that would follow wouldn't remember anything she said while possessed. Our Max couldn't have any way to know that for sure, but it would imply the first theory is actually correct: all auto-pilot Maxes have to deal with amnesia. Is the fact the 18 yo Max's conscience took over the new 18 yo Max's body (the one member of the Vortex Club) ethical? Even though the original 18 yo Max is the one who created this new timeline, is it right for her to interrupt the life of the new "auto-pilot Max"? It probably bothered Max a lot since in the nightmare sequence, the Max ghost introduced herself as "one of the many Maxes you left behind" and she said "look at the trail of death you left behind". It could be interpreted as all the auto-pilot Maxes' lives "our" Max interrupted. The auto-pilot phenomenon described above is the first example in the game. It will happen four other times after that. 1. After 13 yo Max was possessed by 18 yo Max to sacrifice William, she will go on living until 18 yo Max takes over in Chloe's room (the morning grope sequence): this Max basically lived her life exactly like our Max did the first time but will do some actions of her own like her diary shows (making fun of Chloe by throwing her beanie through the window, playing CSI Arcadia Bay with Chloe) 2. After Max escaped the dark room through her selfie and warned David, a new Max will have to go on living until our Max takes over in the plane to SF. This Max will notably win the contest and pose with her winning picture. 3. After Max tore her winning picture, a new Max will go on living a week, until our Max takes over in the dark room (when she realized Mr. Jefferson burned her diary): without the diary we can't be sure of what she did during the week. 4. After Max warned Chloe on the parking lot, a new Max will go on living for more than a day. She will warn David with Chloe while they wait for him and the police to arrest Jefferson. Our Max will take over on the beach, watching the tornado with Chloe. In the end, our Max possibly interrupted five other Max's lives. If we consider only the time travel through pictures, the player witnessed 6 different Maxes in the game. Life is Strange is basically the player following the journey of one iteration of Max's conscience through time. In the general flowchart given at the beginning of this page, you can follow this journey by adding all the continuous blue segments. The sum of these segments basically defines our Max. Side note: it is interesting to note that the first example of auto-pilot Max is the only one who doesn't have time-travel powers: this Max never saved Chloe in the bathroom. It confirms Max got her powers, or at least could only trigger them by saving Chloe in the bathroom. References Category:Time Category:Life is Strange Category:Gameplay